The Hidden Box

Having been told by Luna that there was nothing she could do, Ivan abandoned the idea of getting information out of Dumbledore and went to the Headmaster's office.

Ivan, however, was in no hurry to act. He had finally found a way to use the Resurrection Stone, and he wanted to take this opportunity to experiment with it.

After a series of tests, Ivan found that the vast majority of the dead were unable to resist the calling of the Resurrection Stone, and were left in endless darkness at the end of their lives, their memories frozen in the moment before death.

The only exception is probably Dumbledore.

Both the information he received from Harry and the fact that the Headmaster had been summoned proved that he was capable of staying sane in the world of the dead.

Was it because of the difference in magic level?

Yvonne thought for a while and then tried to get Luna to call on Nicolas Flamel, but the conversation went unexpectedly well, and Yvonne was surprised to learn that the renowned alchemist knew as little about the afterlife as everyone else.

Given this, Ivan had to settle for the next best thing, asking for a way to fix the memory-removal device.

Ivan was pleased with the results of the experiment. The power of the Resurrection Stone was indeed worthy of its name as a sacred relic, as it could indeed summon the souls of the dead from the dead.

This means that with the Resurrection Stone in his possession, he has the power to break life and death, should he wish to use the Dark Arts ritual to revive any dead person…

This did not make Ivan any less arrogant.

Since the makers of the three artifacts had deliberately placed restrictive magic on the Resurrection Stone, there must be a deep meaning behind it, perhaps because of the consequences of misuse of the stone.

With that in mind, Ivan turned to the little witch and said, "That's enough, Luna. Put the Resurrection Stone away."

The latter nodded and immediately canceled the supply of magic to the Resurrection Stone, causing the surrounding dark space to crack.

A gentle night breeze blew past, and the sea of blue and purple flowers appeared in front of them again.

"Thanks, Luna," Ivan said gratefully, taking the Resurrection Stone from her. He wondered how long it would have taken him to learn about Horcruxes without her help.

"You don't have to thank me. We're friends, aren't we? And you've already given me the best gift you could!" Luna shook her head gently and stared at the petals that were being blown into the sky by the night wind. She watched them disintegrate into wisps of blue and purple magical fluorescence.

When all the petals were gone, Luna opened the glass bottle of memories, and wisps of white mist returned to her mind under the guidance of her wand.

Everything that had been forgotten came back to her, as did the memories of her time with her mother. The memories came back to her when she was nine years old, on the afternoon of her mother's unexpected death.

"It won't be long before you see her again, I promise you!" Ivan said solemnly.

… .

After saying goodbye to Luna, Ivan used Apparition to return to Hogwarts Castle and went straight to the Headmaster's office on the top floor.

When she opened the front door, Ivan looked around. It had been nearly half a year since he last visited, and the place still seemed strange.

The olive branch with the phoenix resting on it had almost withered, and a large number of unfinished documents were casually piled up beside the desk, except for the portraits on the back wall.

When Ivan entered the Headmaster's office, the eyes on the portrait turned to look at him curiously.

Ivan's gaze also turned to one of the portraits, in which Dumbledore was leisurely eating tea and gossiping about his students with the headmasters.

"Professor Dumbledore, is there something you've been forgetting to tell me?" Yvonne asked, interrupting the headmasters' conversation.

"What a rude boy… Can't you see we're talking about something important?" a Ravenclaw Headmistress said, glaring at Ivan.

"Really? I had no idea it was so important to discuss student gossip…" Ivan said, rolling his eyes.

He had always assumed that the portraits in the Headmaster's office were reserved and would not leave the room so easily, so they were rarely seen in the castle.

Now, it seemed that this was not the case. Instead, they were all very passionate and would hide somewhere to gossip about the students…

The headmasters were very unhappy with Ivan's argument. They were obviously concerned about the growth of the students. How could he call it gossip?

"It's about time…" Dumbledore was not surprised to see Ivan, and after a short discussion with the Headmasters, he got up and fiddled with the bookshelf inside the portrait.

The next second, one side of the frame popped up automatically.

Yvonne moved closer and saw that there was a hidden compartment beneath Dumbledore's portrait.

In his search for the missing Elder Wand, he had searched the entire Headmaster's office, and naturally wanted to touch the portraits of the Headmaster.

However, the wall behind him had been placed under a powerful immobilising spell, so that the precious portraits would not be destroyed.

Sometimes you really shouldn't be soft-hearted…

Reflecting on this, Ivan removed the frame and set it aside.

The interior of the secret compartment was small, with dozens of transparent glass bottles inside. Each bottle had a few wisps of white mist floating in it, which seemed to be memory threads.

In that case, the answer Dumbledore wanted him to find should be in these memories…

Ivan took out the glass bottles and turned to look at the portrait with a hostile expression. A few months ago, when he came to the principal's office, the other party did not mention such an important matter.

The Dumbledore in the portrait shrugged and casually stated that he was only following orders. The person Ivan was looking for was dead, and he was just a portrait…

Ivan had nowhere to vent his anger, so he gave up and turned his attention to the glass bottles containing the memory threads. With a slight shake of his human bone wand, the nearest glass bottle automatically opened, and wisps of white mist floated out.

Ivan waved his wand again and shouted.

"Scenario re-enactment!"